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I
have written in past days about my first experiences in Bosnia Herzegovina not
very long after the cessation of open war. I use the term open war because the hatred and the racial and societal issues
still divide the country and corruption stops any real forward progress in defeating
the enemy.

It is difficult to describe a war zone. The buildings that once were homes, businesses, churches are just bombed out shells, with no life save the foraging insects and vermin that root among the remains looking for what else they can devour.

Iconic Sarajevo sign 1995

Where
people still reside, apartment buildings have shell holes that allow in the
winter wind and the outside is pock-marked, the results of shrapnel tearing apart
at the structure trying to weaken it.

There
is a stark analogy between the physical war zone I witnessed in Sarajevo and
remote areas of the countryside and the spiritual battles we face today. In
Bosnia, no place was left untouched. Specific places had horrific stories of hate-driven
carnage and we see the same in the battles Satan wages upon our world. I have felt
the darkness of Satan’s demonic power more in Bosnia than anywhere else I have
traveled but, it is only because there the mask of civilization was ripped away,
and Satan’s plans were open for anyone to see. In the rest of our world, often,
we keep the mask of civility and Satan’s attacks are, perhaps, not unseen, but unnoticed by an uncaring society too wrapped in their
own pain and secular drives to respond.

In the Bible we read, Satan is a roaring lion, prowling around seeing whom he may devour, just like the vermin crawling among the carnage of Bosnia’s war. Paul tells us our war is not against flesh and blood but “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 6:12)

God
has permitted Satan to have dominion over the world until the time He finishes
it and brings Satan to destruction and all who believe in Christ are His
forever in peace. God waits, not because He is cruel but because He is patient
and loving. Peter explains it, writing that God is “not slow about His promise,
as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to
perish but for all to come to repentance.”(2 Peter 3:9)

Until
then, as one writer put it, “Satan’s attack means that we all are vulnerable to
sickness, betrayal, financial meltdown, relational loss, emotional despair and
other hardships… bad things happen to good people… we live in a war zone.
There will be casualties.” (Rooted, Mariners Church 2011 p 85)

In
our spiritual battles, there will be homes empty, just shells remaining where
once there were families. There will be businesses and churches gone, only the
few, scattered remains from a bombing by sin and failure. Where people still reside,
there will be shell holes letting in the cold winter wind, chilling the soul
and hardening the heart; the explosive remains of damaged relationships, lost trust and horrific
sin. The lives of those struggling to survive are pock-marked by the shrapnel
of sin which has left its mark upon them.

There
is hope.

The
damage of war can be overcome and what was once uninhabitable shells of homes
and broken down lives can come to life again like spring after a hard winter.
The refreshing breeze of peace and love that comes only from Jesus Christ through
His victory over death and sin. When it
coms to spiritual battles, as the ‘Rooted’ book spells out, “And (the Lord)
wins. Every. Single. Time.” (p 85)

Someone once wrote how, in the darkest of places, a single candle burns brightest. I saw such a candle in Bosnia. It came in the form of a simple, unpretentious man who loved His Lord and loved every single person God sent his way in a very dark place. The flame of his candle lit many small candles which will burn for generations when the Spirit moves to set those candles within His lampstand.

John
writes, “We know that we are children of God and that the world is under the
control of the evil one.” That is disconcerting to say the least. But in context,
we find hope. The verse just before this one reads, “We know that no one who is
born of God sins; but He who was born of God (that’s Jesus)keeps him (that’s you if you truly believe)and the evil one (that’s
Satan) does not touch him. Jesus
told us we would have trouble in this world, but the Good News is that Jesus
has overcome the world! He said so! Jesus doesn’t lie. Satan’s attacks will be
all around us, but as believers, saved by grace through faith, even if we die
because of a sinful world’s sickness, we are safe, secure, in heaven forever
with Him.

We live in a war zone. Live under the banner of the victor. Take heed to what He teaches about daily survival and keep a long-view, looking toward the completion of all things under Christ.